Only a brief interval before, she had found herself wishing that the
decision of her life's destiny had not rested entirely with herself. It
seemed to her that a great revelation had been vouchsafed between the
amazing present and those past moments of troubled meditation. And she
knew now that it did not.




CHAPTER VII

SERVICE RENDERED


The news that Monck was down with the fever brought both the Colonel and
Major Ralston early to the bungalow on the following morning.

They found Stella and the ever-faithful Peter in charge of both
patients. Tommy was better though weak. Monck was in a high fever and
delirious.

Stella was in the latter's room, for he would not suffer her out of his
sight. She alone seemed to have any power to control him, and Ralston
noted the fact with astonishment.

"There's some magic about you," he observed in his blunt fashion. "Are
you going to take on this job? It's no light one but you'll probably do
it better than any one else."

It was a tacit invitation, and Stella knowing how widespread was the